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Aleister Crowley and William Butler Yeats get into an occult battle (2016)
21–30 of 123 posts
Re: Aleister Crowley and William Butler Yeats get into an occult battle (2016)
#22Highly recommend W. Sommerset Maughm's "The Magician" for a treatment of Crowley's personality and influence. The occult is full of tedious charlatans, and yet they reappear in history in influential forms like Machiavelli, Rasputin, Crowley, Mesmer, Bernays, Marcuse, and other literal mesmerists, with lesser lights as 20th century cult leaders, and I think Klaus Schwab and his transhumanist hokum is the current equi…
> What fascinates me about the occult personally is that it's a fundamentally inferior ontology - where it's what you believe when you don't have belief These characters are fascinating when they're safely in the past and they can be seen purely as drawing out an unacknowledged need in the zeitgeist. In the present, it's terrifying and infuriating to see people choosing their reality out of sheer self-indulgence.
I don't understand the quoted sentence from GP, what does that really mean?
Also, you seem to think you don't choose your reality because it's "objective". Why do you believe that? From a relativistic point of view, wouldn't those occultists also think that their reality is the "real" one, and that you are choosing your reality out of sheer self-indulgence (or ignorance, or whatever)?
Re: Aleister Crowley and William Butler Yeats get into an occult battle (2016)
#23For those interested I did put Crowley original tarot deck on the Etteilla Foundation website https://etteilla.org/en/deck/69/crowley-s-thoth-tarot
Re: Aleister Crowley and William Butler Yeats get into an occult battle (2016)
#24Highly recommend W. Sommerset Maughm's "The Magician" for a treatment of Crowley's personality and influence. The occult is full of tedious charlatans, and yet they reappear in history in influential forms like Machiavelli, Rasputin, Crowley, Mesmer, Bernays, Marcuse, and other literal mesmerists, with lesser lights as 20th century cult leaders, and I think Klaus Schwab and his transhumanist hokum is the current equi…
> it's what you believe when you don't have belief
I know it's trendy to dismiss energy, chakras, astral projection out of hand, but there's some weird shit that feels every bit as real as any other experience if you know how to tap into them.
Someone entering trance states (like Crowley's wife apparently) and interacting with those levels of consciousness isn't engaged in belief, they're having experiences that are real to them.
Re: Aleister Crowley and William Butler Yeats get into an occult battle (2016)
#25Crowley, and his forebear Eliphas Levi, are responsible for the stupid air of sulphur which hangs around a lot of modern esoterica.
AC has his apologists, and he was obviously clever, but he was unquestionably a complete turd, and created a religious system which was fundamentally Satanic, wrapped in enough layers of obfuscation that it can fascinate intelligent people, especially those who have received a substandard education in theology, which is practically everyone these days.
Someone asked why Crowley is perennially popular on HN. It's because his approach appeals to people who have experienced enough religion to understand that there is something there, but are struggling to reconcile it with our culture's dominant scientific materialism, because they're bright enough to want to try to. "The method of science, the aim of religion". A lot of HN matches that demographic.
There are better ways of squaring the circle, but they're less sexy.
Re: Aleister Crowley and William Butler Yeats get into an occult battle (2016)
#26There seems to be interest on HN when it comes to articles about Crowley and similar figures. Can some one help me understand why it's popular with this audience?
"The method of science, the aim of religion." Crowley appeals to people who have had enough religion to recognise that there's something to it, but can't reconcile it with the scientific materialism in our dominant culture, and are intelligent enough to want to try.
Re: Aleister Crowley and William Butler Yeats get into an occult battle (2016)
#27There seems to be interest on HN when it comes to articles about Crowley and similar figures. Can some one help me understand why it's popular with this audience?
I’ve wondered the same thing too. I don’t really keep up to date on political stuff, but I get the feeling that there is a history that links libertarianism, the tech sector, transhumanism, and occultism. I had seen stuff about how Peter Thiel has funded a bunch of art-related events that may sometimes utilize this esoteric aesthetic.
Re: Aleister Crowley and William Butler Yeats get into an occult battle (2016)
#28My favourite Crowley essay is on cocaine. So many funny bits.
http://www.luminist.org/archives/cocaine.htm
However, let us concede the prohibitionist claims. Let us admit the police contention that cocaine and the rest are used by criminals who would otherwise lack the nerve to operate; they also contend that the effects of the drugs are so deadly that the cleverest thieves quickly become inefficient. Then for Heaven’s sake establish depots where they can get free cocaine!
Re: Aleister Crowley and William Butler Yeats get into an occult battle (2016)
#29Crowley, and his forebear Eliphas Levi, are responsible for the stupid air of sulphur which hangs around a lot of modern esoterica. AC has his apologists, and he was obviously clever, but he was unquestionably a complete turd, and created a religious system which was fundamentally Satanic, wrapped in enough layers of obfuscation that it can fascinate intelligent people, especially those who have received a substandar…
I avoided Sam Harris for the longest time due to some interviews of him that I had heard before, but I started listening to his meditation instruction recently, and it's by far the best I've ever heard for bridging the gap between traditional mysticism and modern secularism.
Re: Aleister Crowley and William Butler Yeats get into an occult battle (2016)
#30Crowley, and his forebear Eliphas Levi, are responsible for the stupid air of sulphur which hangs around a lot of modern esoterica. AC has his apologists, and he was obviously clever, but he was unquestionably a complete turd, and created a religious system which was fundamentally Satanic, wrapped in enough layers of obfuscation that it can fascinate intelligent people, especially those who have received a substandar…
I avoided Sam Harris for the longest time due to some interviews of him that I had heard before, but I started listening to his meditation instruction recently, and it's by far the best I've ever heard for bridging the gap between traditional mysticism and modern secularism.
I've not heard of him - I'll have a look. This may not apply to him, but what I'm wary of is anything that makes the practice a personal improvement exercise - it has to reach for the heavens and encourage empathic love for other people, or it'll end up in the wrong place, IMO.